I never really noticed how weird looking the Airbus A380-800 was until I had the chance to create these blank templates. It’s a very odd looking aircraft with a tall snout and fat body, and it will certainly go down in history as one of the most unique airliners ever built.
Anyway, I’ve been having the itch to start creating some illustrations of some of the new A380’s from various airlines, but I needed a side view template before I could begin. So here it is!
Side profile illustration of a white Airbus A380-800 over a blank background with and without the landing gear deployed
A380-800 technical line drawing
Of all the side-profile templates I’ve created so far, this one took the longest to complete. There is a lot of technical detail in this big airplane, and it was almost as much work as creating two Boeing 737-800s. Double the windows and doors, double the engines, and whole heck of a lot more surface area! That large surface area made it difficult to get the shadows to flow correctly, and my arm certainly got a workout as I worked my Wacom pen from nose to tail.
If there was one thing I learned while creating these illustrations, it’s that the A380-800 is essentially a “reversed” Boeing C-17 Globemaster III.
Both have 4 engines. Both are extremely hefty. And they both look downright weird when viewed from a side profile. The main difference (other than one being a military aircraft and the other being commercial) is that the wings of the A380 extend outwards from the base of the fuselage. The wings of the C-17 extend out from the top.
Either way, it’s nice to see that fat airplanes serve just as much purpose and the sleek and slippery ones do.
